Stalte 1 Susan Stalte Professor Gail Froggatt Composition I 5 December 2011 The Dangers of Fast Food Whether you love it or hate it, society has made fast food a way of life. ‘Fast food’ commonly refers to unhealthy foods that require little preparation time to serve. Familiar fast food chains currently operating in the United States include McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, and others. Fast food is great ‘grab-an-go’ food that’s fairly reasonable in cost. Nowadays, society is all about ‘quick’ rather than focusing on ‘quick yet healthy.’ No one has the time to wait, money to spend, or even the interest to open a McDonald’s nutrition facts brochure. The food served at these fast food chains is packed full of calories, trans fats, cholesterol, sodium, and sugar. Additionally, it’s not like the food is processed with regards to sanitation or cleanliness. To make matters worse, the expense isn’t helping anyone either. With obesity rates drastically rising, society should completely avoid fast food due to health concerns, sanitation issues, and expenditure. Rarely is it that a fast food item will get the name ‘healthy’ without the marketing restaurants having consumers believe so. Unfortunately, these fast food chains have yet to advertise their foods nutritional content. Saying that a new item on the menu is low in calories, does not necessarily mean it isn’t packed full of trans and saturated fats, cholesterol, refined sugar, and sodium. Consuming foods high in these measures will lead to a number of other health issues in itself. So why is it that “…on any given day, one quarter of the adult [American] population visits a fast food restaurant?” (Neuman). Because Americans are not aware of the

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